Officers refused to help, teen says
Tribunal hears city cop’s partner ‘didn’t do anything’ after punch
The young man alleging a Toronto officer punched him then drew his gun during a 2011 police stop in Lawrence Heights said he looked to other cops for help during and after the fateful encounter, but no one stepped up.
On the second day of testimony from the main complainant at the ongoing disciplinary hearing of two Toronto police officers, the young man — 15 at the time of the incident, and whose name is protected by a publication ban — was cross-examined on his account of the ordeal. Const. Adam Lourenco and Const. Scharnil Pais each stand accused under Ontario’s Police Services Act of unlawfully arresting the main complainant, his twin brother and two of their friends, boys all 16 or under at the time. The arrests happened immediately after they left their homes inside a Toronto Community Housing Corp. complex on Nep-
“I could tell by looking at him that he knew this was wrong. That’s why he wasn’t looking.” MAIN COMPLAINANT ON CONST. SCHARNIL PAIS AVERTING HIS EYES DURING THE 2011 ALTERCATION
tune Dr. and walked toward an afterschool program called Pathways to Education.
Lourenco faces two other charges of disorderly conduct for allegedly using unreasonable force, one for punching the main complainant and another for pointing his gun at three of the boys.
The officers have pleaded not guilty to all charges and none of the allegations have been proven at the tribunal.
The four teens were criminally charged after the encounter but all charges were later withdrawn. The Star is not identifying any of the teens, now 20 and 21, because of an ongoing publication ban under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
The tribunal heard earlier this week that the officers told the group they matched the descriptions of suspects in a recent robbery. When the main complainant asked if he was under arrest or free to go — putting to use knowledge he’d recently gained at a seminar on his rights in police encounters — he alleges Lourenco became violent, punching him, knocking him to the ground, then drawing his weapon.
Under cross-examination Friday by Lourenco’s lawyer, Lawrence Gridin, the young man went into greater detail about events that night and his encounters with other officers.
The witness testified that after Lourenco knocked him to the ground, the officer deliberately cut his own thumb on something sharp on his police belt, showed the young man and said: “Look, you just assaulted a police officer.”
The young man then said he and his friends looked to Pais, who was standing nearby and who he said was deliberately averting his eyes.
“I could tell by looking at him that he knew this was wrong. That’s why he wasn’t looking . . . he didn’t do anything,” the witness said.
The young man then testified that moments later, after Lourenco handcuffed him and violently placed him into the car of another unit called for backup, he tried to explain what happened to the Black officer driving the cruiser.
“He was Black and I was trying to appeal to him . . . (I was saying) ‘I swear to God, I saw him cut his thumb,’ ” the witness said.
The officer was respectful, the witness said, but told him to “forget about the rights stuff,” in reference to defending his constitutional right to walk away from police under certain circumstances and asking questions such as “Am I under arrest?”
“He said . . . basically don’t use it. It’s not going to work in real life,” the witness said.
Gridin took the witness through each of his allegations in a highly detailed manner, noting that the young man was alleging a significant amount of mistreatment by his client, Pais and “a lot of different officers.”
Gridin later said there were several claims made by the young man that “I intend to impeach him on.”
The hearing continues next week. Wendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.ca.